Mayor Torres makes his speech before CAMI members.
PHOTO BY BONG LACSON
CLARK FREEPORT – If their plans do not miscarry, the new team of administrators of the municipality of Guagua
would whip up a “fiesta” atmosphere in the town during the Holiday Season this coming December to attract more visitors to have a taste of its varied products, homegrown farm commodities and fresh sea-foods plied in its river-front markets.
Mayor Dante Datu Torres, who won his fi rst mandate in this year’s mid-term polls, announced this in last
Friday’s regular weekly forum Balitaan of the Capampangan in Media Inc. (CAMI) at the Bale-Balita here.
The activities will kick off with a trade and product fair this December featuring the town’s fresh farm and marine products, including its image as a center of education, arts and culture, particularly the world-renown Betis woodcarving craftsmanship, Torres said.
The festivities are designed to call the attention of the public, including out-of-town potential investors and business locators such as banks, fast-food chains and other enterprises engaged in the wholesale and retail
businesses, and service- oriented entities, on the potentials of Guagua as a viable commercial hub.
The mayor said the continuing challenge to Guagua now is how to catch up with its more progressive neighbors, like in terms of rising revenues, upgraded infrastructure, effective public services, and vibrant business centers.
A reinvigorated trade activity could spur a growth in job opportunities and in the earnings and disposable incomes of Guagua’s individual and business residents that, in turn, could help buoy the municipality’s revenues.
Guagua is now classified as a first-class municipality peopled by some 104,284 individuals in 18,438 households. Its annual revenues average P140 million a year, with the bulk accounted for by its P100-million IRA (Internal Revenue Allotment).
Its revenues from business taxes and fees had stood at a mere P37 million annually and its realty tax revenues amounted to only P3 million. To meet its expenditures and other obligations, Guagua had to partly rely on the P5 million yearly “assistance” from the offi ce of Gov. Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda.
“Clearly our revenues are insuffi cient to satisfy our constituencies’ demand and expectations on the level of local government services,” Torres admitted even as he justifi ed the option of his team to boost business-
oriented activities in the town by way of the planned trade and product fairs that could hopefully trigger a growth in business enterprises and their activities.
The mayor said the effort could bolster the town’s medium-to-long-term goal of developing into a progressive town in Pampanga. “We intend to initially capitalize on Guagua’s brand as a ‘seafood center’ with the activities we have lined up beginning this year to attract a wider public attention” he said, noting that unknown to many, the bulk of tilapia traded and consumed in Luzon and Metro Manila passes through Guagua’s markets of fresh marine products.
On account of this, “we may even come up with a ‘Tilapia festival’ as one of the modes to bolster Guagua’s brand as a seafood center, he added. Apart from being a seafood center, Guagua has also been known for its wood-carving arts and craftsmen – known as the Betis wood art – a center for education, and an important tourist destination in Pampanga.
“One of our cherished dreams,” Torres said, “is to recover Guagua’s historic role as a premier marketplace for various marine and farm products.
Historical records show that Guagua (originally called “Wawa” or mouth of the river) was already a prosperous settlement way before the arrival in 1561 of the Spanish colonizers, an evolution caused by its strategic location that allowed the growth of a river transport system as well as a commercial land-based route
